I slipped into the first empty chair, which was in the front row. The door closed and the guy walked past me...right to the front of the class. Lovely. He could glare at me all through class. I snuck a look over my shoulder, but I didn’t see any other open chairs. I was stuck.
Note to self: Leave twenty minutes earlier tomorrow.
The guy cleared his throat. His hands rested on the podium, and his eyes lingered on me for a moment before sweeping the class. “Welcome to Abnormal Psychology. My name is Jeremy Fuller,” he said. “I’m Professor Gayle’s assistant, so I’ll be helping out with most of the teaching and testing for this class.”
He had striking features. Blue eyes, light blond hair that held a little curl, and an almost too-thin face, but he was handsome. He looked a little like Jude Law, which would normally have made me frown, but as far as I was concerned, this guy was my teacher. I’d be friend, not foe.
We got the syllabus, an explanation of everything contained in the syllabus, and when no one could think of a question to stall the arrival of our first lecture, we got that, too. The lesson filled the rest of the hour. He dismissed the class, but I was putting my laptop away when he came up to me, clearing his throat.
“You’re Taylor Bruce?”
“Yeah?”
“Hi. I’m Jeremy Fuller—” His lip twitched, and he pulled back his hand. “Sorry. Habit. We already did introductions, and I swear, I’m not a creepy teacher dude.” He paused, closing his eyes for a beat. Then he shook his head. “I’m coming across like an idiot. Okay. Let me try again. I knew your mother.”
My heart stilled.
“No. Sorry. Wow. I’m bumbling this, aren’t I?” He tried another smile. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t realize who you were when you first came in, but once you introduced yourself… I’d been meaning to find you before class started. That’s what I’m trying to say. You don’t have to be here.”
A boulder lodged inside my chest. Someone had opened me up, stuffed it in there, and now they were trying to stitch me up around it. “What?” I couldn’t move.
“No, no, no,” he said again, hastily. “This is all coming out the wrong way. I recognized your name on the list, and Professor Gayle asked me to double-check, because she recognized your name, too. She’s a friend of your dad’s, and she remembered hearing that you were in a nursing program already. I double-checked your transcripts and called your last professor.”
My chest grew tighter as he spoke.
He called my last professor…
He knew…
He had to know…
I licked my lips. They were chapped. When did that happen? A slight buzzing sound started in my ears, and I shook my head, trying to clear it. When I spoke, my voice was hoarse. “I took an incomplete with that class, the one like this one.”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “The professor explained where you went when—”#p#分页标题#e#
I tensed, waiting for the blow. He was going to say it.
“—you had to take your incomplete. He told me it was late in the semester, and you had a ninety-eight percent in the class overall. He would’ve passed you, but you didn’t take the final you assured him you’d be back to finish.”
This was like a nightmare.
My hands sank into my bag, holding on to it tight. “I left school altogether.”
He paused, his mouth open, then his eyes darted to my face. “Uh, yeah. He told me that, too. I explained that you were a student here now, and he said he’d waive your last agreement. You got an eighty-three percent in the course. That’s what I meant when I said you don’t have to be here.”
“I don’t?”
“I don’t even have you on the list. I already put you in the next class up. Now…” He cleared his throat, sliding his glasses to the top of his nose. “This means you’ll be in class with actual nursing students. They took this course and got into the program, so in essence, you did, too, but not officially. Does that make sense?”
No.
He knew. He must’ve known.
He paused again, frowning at me. “Taylor?”
I nodded. He was saying something. I’d remember it later and figure it out. Class. The next one. Not this one. I nodded again, which was enough for him. He launched into the next part of his statement.
I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t.
“…tomorrow then?” He sounded so bright and cheery.
I forced a smile, and a weak “Okay.”
“Great. Good. All right then,” he said. “I have another class in here. What do you have next?”